Title

Earthworm Diets.

Problem Scenario

Whether earthworms will eat more in there normal diet or in a random diet that is not there normal diet.

Broad Question

Do earthworms grow at a higher rate in there normal environments then in different environments?

Specific Question

What is the impact of different types on the growth of earthworm?

Hypothesis

The earthworms in there normal diets will grow more then the earthworms in the various environments, because the earthworms in the normal diets will be used to that kind of environment.
Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable:

Food that the earthworms are living in.

Independent Variable

The mass of the earthworms.

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

Earthworms in there normal environment.

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

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General Plan

My plan for my project is to first buy about twenty different worms. I am going to separate all of the worms into four different habitats with five worms in each habitat. Five worms in there normal everyday habitat. Five worms in a compost habitat. Five worms in a habitat with cut up newspaper and soil. And Five worms in an environment that consists of only sand. Before I start this experiment, I am going to measure and find out the mass of each set of five worms for each habitat. I will use four different and fertilize it with each habitat. After I put five worms in each habitat, I am going to measure the mass of the earthworm every four days. I will record the mass of the earthworm for each habitat every four days. At the end of the experiment I will measure the mass of all of the specific worms in each habitat and record every specific earthworms mass. I will also add together all of the earthworms mass for each habitat after 3 weeks of the earthworms being in there habitat. After I record that data I will know weather earthworms prefer different environments.

Potential Problems And Solutions:

The earthworms could die during the experiment. I will keep them in an area of 60- 80 degrees which is the required environmental for earthworm survival. Earthworms will die if there enviroment is dry so I will put 50 ML of water inside there environmental at the beggining of the experiment.

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

No safety or environmental concerns.

Experimental Design

What is your experimental unit?

I will be measuring 20 differint Earthworms, and 50 ml of water four times for my experiment.

How many trials will there be?

This experiment will only be repeated through one trial for each earthworm enviroment. Each trial is 2 weeks long. All the trials will be done at the same time so in all it is just one trial.

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:

My subjects are the Earthworms. For each trial there were five earthworms because I had five earthworms in each environment sand and soil, newspaper and soil, and normal soil.

Number of Observations:

I had about 30 obsevations that I made during my experiment

When will data will be collected

From February 25th to March 2nd.

Where will data be collected?:,

In the Science room.

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Number needed	Where I will get this	Cost
Earthworms	20	Wal- Mart	$ 3.00

Detailed Procedure

1. Fill a small cup with five worms in a normal earthworm environment of just soil, five with the sandy environment mixed with normal soil, five with ripped up newspaper and normal soil, and five worms in a compost environment with some normal soil.
2.Put 50 ML ML of water in each earthworm environment right after the earthworms are put into there enviroments.
3. Organize the worms into 5 worms in each space. Measure the mass of each worm and record the mass of each worm before putting the warms in a shady area.
4. Leave worms in a shady area that is at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. After one week put 50 ML of water in each habitat.
6. After two weeks of earthworms being in shade, put another 50 ML of water in the earthworms enviroment.
7. Keep the worms in the same area until the end of the three weeks.
8. At the end of the three weeks record the mass of each worm and add together and to find out which group of worms is the largest mass.

Diagram

Photo List

Time Line

February 15- Begin experiment.
February 22- Measure the mass of each earthworm and add them up for each habitat.
March 2- Measure the mass of each earthworm and add them up for each habitat.
March 9- Add together the mass of each habitat and record which earthworm habitats are the largest.
March 10- 29- Work on making science fair poster.

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Data Analysis

All Raw Data

Graphs

Photos

Results

In my experiment overall, the final result was that Earthworms grow much more in their normal environments than they do in the various random environments that I put some earthworms into. Earthworms need a specific environment to survive for very long. They will last less than a week in an environment that is not ideal for them. Their environment needs to have the exact right kind of soil and moisture so that they grow at the rate they should, and survive longer. In any other kind of environment there are slim chances of survival. By the end of the three week period the worms in the random environments were almost already dead. Earthworms need to have their normal soil, be in the right temperature and be as far away from the sun as possible. Those were the final results in my experiment.

Conclusion

In my experiment the final conclusion is that worms grow at a faster rate when in there normal environments compared to when they are in different environments. My hypothesis was correct because I predicted that worms would go better with moist soil then with the other habitats that I put the worms in. My results show that worms grow at a faster rate in there soil environments then in other environments One thing I could research is weather worms grow better in certain kinds of soil more then other soil. That would be an interesting topic to do some research on this topic. Overall though, my experiment proved my hypothesis to be true.

Discussion
The overall results of my experiment were that Earthworms grow better in there normal envirnments then they do in various other enviroments. Before going into this project I already knew that earthworms need a certain amount of water and the temperture of there enviroment had to be correct. There are many reasons why I got these results in the end of my experiment. The first, and most obvious reason was because the earthworms are used to enriching there normal soil and not other various items being mixed with there soil so there is more for the earthworms to enrich. The earthworms grew significantly bigger when they were in there normal soil. People have researched weather earthworms grow at a higher rate in certain kinds of soil and the answer is yes. I thought it would be interesting to see if earthworms grow better in normal soil then others and the final conclusion was also yes. If I was to do this experiment again I would try out some new enviroments and see if they grow better in those environments.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

Background Research

The first thing I researched before I began my experiment was the ideal temperature earthworms should live in. I found out that the ideal temp is from 60- 80 degrees. Any higher then 85 or below 45 will kill most earthworms so it is important that I keep them at the right temperatures Increasing the temparture would mean they would need more soil to survive for longer periods of time. Also, I have found out that Earthworm environments always need to be moist so I will put 50 ML of water in there environments every three days to keep them at the optimal growth rate. When earthworms are in a environment that the temperature is too high or too low for them they will go deeper into the soil. The other thing that I found out about earthworm growth was that they need to be in a shady area where there is preferably no sunlight. If they are kept in a sunny area they will be dried out in a very short period of time.

Abstract

I chose my experiment because I thought it would be interesting to find out weather earthworms grow at a higher rate in there normal soil then in various kinds of environments. For my experiment, I sorted out different earthworm environments and put them into there environments for three weeks and recorded the rate they grew at. My hypothesis was that the earthworms would grow at a higher rate in there normal environments then the various other environments such as compost, newspaper, and sand. I didn't only put sand and newspaper into those two environments because they need soil to survive but I thought they might still grow at a higher rate in different kinds of items mixed in with there soil.

Reference

Data Table

Type of Earthworm Environment	Growth of Earthworms in Grams
Normal Soil	.5
Normal Soil/ Shredded Newspaper	.8
Sand	.2